rantlust

Posted by anupcs on March 30th 2007 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Music, Television, USA
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Even if you won’t admit that you watch “American Idol” like 35 million other Americans, you must have still heard of the cult phenomenon who is Sanjaya Malakar. The 17 year old hula dancing, shaggy haired, half Indian, half Italian, effeminate dude who will single-handedly bring down the show if he wins it. A few weeks ago, such an eventuality would have been scoffed at (Simon Cowell famously quipped that he won’t be back if Sanjaya wins Idol this season) but now it’s not looking that unrealistic. He’s the underdog that has become a strong wild horse and not because he’s a fantastic belter of songs… far from it.

Due to the efforts of his many tween fans, Howard Stern, and the web site votefortheworst.com the erstwhile shy teenager has beat all odds to make it to the top 9. On the other side of the coin, this Darwin award potential is on a hunger strike till Sanjaya gets booted off. Of late, he has become emboldened and seems almost carefree while on stage. From causing young girls to bawl uncontrollably (original here; SNL spoof here) to confounding the judges, Sanjaya has brought life to an otherwise boring season. While he is no Frank Sinatra, I don’t think he’s William Hung either. He’s definitely better than your average Karaoke singer. And no matter what Simon Cowell thinks, Idol is not just a singing competition. It’s about the whole package.

I have never voted for a contestant on Idol before but I think this year, I am going to join Stern and the purveyors of votefortheworst.com and start calling in my votes for Sanjaya.

A whole new vocabulary has sprung around Sanjaya now: if you are his fan, you are a fanjaya; if you are his mom, you are momjaya; if you start copying his wacko hairstyles, then you have been sanjaya-ed; and now, if you are a supporter of him on rantlust, you are a rantjaya.

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Posted by tafkap on March 24th 2007 in Celebrity, Developing Nations, Rants, Sports
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Shashi Tharoor had an opinion piece in the NY Times about cricket and American apathy towards it. I must say that it cannot be one of his stronger attempts at writing (actually the only Tharoor I have read is bits and pieces of ‘India from Midnight to the Millenium’). The bottom line of the piece is - Americans are too brutish to get cricket.

Besides being humorless and filled with bromides, (”And the notion that anyone would watch a game that, in its highest form, could take five days and still end in a draw provokes widespread disbelief among results-oriented Americans.”), the piece also demonstrates a blissful ignorance about baseball while making a facile attempt at comparing it with cricket.

In describing the futility of interesting Americans with cricket, he states:

Why try to sell Kiri Te Kanawa to people who prefer Anna Nicole Smith?

Pray tell, which ‘people’ prefer Kiri Te Kanawa to Anna Nicole Smith? Being too much of boor to have heard of Kiri Te Kanawa before this piece, I’d rather not make the acquaintance of these splendid people myself.

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Posted by anupcs on November 15th 2006 in Business, Celebrity, Technology
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The man likes his booms during presentations.

[via Gizmodo]

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Posted by anupcs on November 08th 2006 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Music
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What a day! What a day! After two years of waiting, it has finally happened. The change is definitely for the good of this country. I’m not talking about Arnie becoming re-elected as the Governator nor Hillary thumping her hapless opponent in NYC. I’m not even talking about “Macaca” Allen hanging on by a thread in Virginia. Oh no. I’m talking about our beloved Pop princess getting rid of her baggage. Welcome back to the real world, Britney. We missed ya. Looking hot too. About frigging time!

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Posted by tafkap on July 20th 2006 in Celebrity, Movies, Music
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Before I begin, my taste in music sucks - so please no comments on that. There is this song called Ajooba (means amazing/wondrous) from a Hindi movie called Jeans that caught my fancy a few years ago (I believe this is based on some Tamil movie). In any case, I ran across a video of the same song the other day on youtube. I declare that even by Hindi movie standards, it ranks as the campiest thing I’ve seen. Not even Aishwarya Rai can save it. It features her and some ‘actor’ I don’t recognize gallivanting wondrous parts of the globe while professing their love. Enjoy!

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Posted by anupcs on July 01st 2006 in Celebrity, Fashion, Movies, Rants, Raves
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What is it with our superheroes? Especially the big three. Why do they all have to wear tights? None of them would stand a chance working for a fashion magazine such as the fictitious Runway of “The Devil Wears Prada.” Superman probably won’t even get past the security in the lobby. I mean, this is a superhero who we revere as a god and he wears his underwear outside his clothes. We should be grateful his creators didn’t make him wear a red thong instead.

Even if Superman wore Prada or one of the more in-vogue labels like Marc Jacobs or Marni, it could not have saved the calamitous “Superman Returns” for me. For the first time since 1999’s “Titus,” I walked out of a movie. Forty-five minutes of shoddy screenplay and unbelievably bad acting later, a gentle touch was all that I needed to get my wife to accompany me out of the theater. The timing was perfect for us to sneak into a showing of Meryl Streep’s latest. And boy did that movie save the day or what.
(Read more…)

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Posted by renéejo on June 08th 2006 in Celebrity, Movies
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While some of you may be more interested in the real news of the day, I was relieved in finally getting to see photos of the most anticipated baby since JC. The fine folks at People paid a paltry $4.2 million for the set of images. See all the glory that is Shiloh [Whatever] Jolie-Pitt here.

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Posted by john on June 08th 2006 in Celebrity, Dance, Entertainment, Internet, Music
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Comedian Judson Laippley has become a bit of an internet celebrity with his onstage montage of the popular dance moves over the last 50 years. His routine incorporates famous signature dance moves starting with Elvis in the 50s across through Outkast in the 2000s. Very entertaining in the its execution, the routine also showcases Laippley’s talented body coordination. One of the most popular YouTube views ever, enjoy the show here.

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